Sienna Miller Gets News Corp. Unit Apology for Phone Hacking

Sienna Miller, 29, is one of more than 20 celebrities and politicians to sue the News Corp. unit over the more than four- year-old phone-hacking scandal at the News of the World newspaper. Photograph: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images

June 7 (Bloomberg) -- News Corp.’s U.K. unit apologized to
actress Sienna Miller as part of a 100,000-pound ($165,000)
settlement of a case over hacking into her mobile-phone voice
mails for stories.

News Group Newspapers offered its “sincere apologies” to
Miller, Michael Silverleaf, a lawyer for the News Corp. unit,
said at a London court hearing today.

“News Group has agreed to pay 100,000 pounds to the
claimant as damages and the claimant’s legal costs,” David
Sherborne, Miller’s lawyer, said. “The court has also granted
an injunction preventing any further unlawful accessing of the
claimant’s voice-mail messages.”

Miller, 29, is one of more than 20 celebrities and
politicians to sue the News Corp. unit over the more than four-year-old phone-hacking scandal at the News of the World
newspaper. The company in April offered to settle some of the
cases after journalists linked to the paper were arrested.

The newspaper admitted writing stories about Miller using
information obtained by hacking into her voice mail. The paper
also agreed to give her information relating to the extent of
those intrusions. The court granted an order banning the paper
from repeating the infractions.

Sherborne told the court that in 2005 and 2006, Miller was
the subject of “numerous” articles published by the News of
the World that contained “intrusive and private information.”
Over the same period, she had “considerable concerns” about
the security of her mobile phone because callers had hung up on
her and voice-mail messages had disappeared.

‘Extremely Distressing’

“The claimant did not know whether somebody close to her
was leaking information or whether her telephone was somehow
being hacked into,” Sherborne said. “Both possibilities were
extremely distressing.”

Silverleaf said that the private information should never
have been obtained “in the manner it was” and shouldn’t have
been published. News Group “has accepted liability for misuse
of private information, breach of confidence and harassment.”

Mark Thomson, another of Miller’s lawyers, said she
declined to comment further on the matter.